Mr. A. L. Adam on Bones of Fossil Chelonians. 233 



area, which he named respectively Eocene, Lower Miocene, and 

 Upper Miocene, these names having reference to their relative posi- 

 tion rather than to their positive age. It was stated that Eocene 

 strata were as yet known to occur only in Jamaica ; and the author 

 then described the Lower Miocene deposits of Trinidad, Anguilla, 

 and Antigua, and the Upper Miocene of San Domingo, Jamaica, 

 Trinidad, and Cumana, giving sections illustrating the nature and 

 position of the beds, and lists of the fossils found therein. Mr. 

 Guppy then discussed the age of the Caribbean Miocene deposits of 

 the different islands, giving the evidence on which the above-men- 

 tioned classification is founded, and a sketch of the deposits in other 

 islands not included in it. In conclusion the author discussed the 

 relation of the West-Indian Miocene deposits to the Tertiary strata 

 of other regions, especially with regard to the migration of species 

 and the Atlantis hypothesis ; and he inferred that the Miocene of 

 the West Indies must be included in the same great period of time 

 as that of Europe, and may therefore be considered, in a geological 

 sense, synchronous, that it is highly improbable that the West- 

 Indian Miocene forms reached the localities where they occur as 

 fossils by way of the Isthmus of Panama, or by an easterly route 

 from Europe or from the Indian sea, and that it is probable that 

 during the early and middle Tertiaries such a connexion existed 

 between the shores of the Atlantic as admitted of the migration of 

 organized beings from one side to the other, although the continents 

 may not have been absolutely joined. 



8. " On the discovery of new Gold-deposits in the district of 

 Esmeraldas, Ecuador." By Lieut.-Col. Neale, Her Majesty's Charge 

 d' Affaires in Ecuador. 



The author stated that unworked and hitherto unknown gold- 

 deposits had been discovered in the district of Esmeraldas, Ecuador, 

 and that the President of the Republic, who had received specimens 

 of the gold of a very pure quality, purposed sending a scientific com- 

 mission to report on the probable yield of the gold-district. Further, 

 he recorded a recent influx of immigrants from California and Ne- 

 vada to the gold-mines of Barbacoas in New Granada. 



9. " On bones of fossil Chelonians from the Ossiferous Caves 

 and Fissures of Malta." By A. Leith Adams, M.B., F.G.S. 



The remains of more than one species of River-Tortoise, agreeing 

 in their characters with the Helodians and Potamians, were stated to 

 occur in the Maltese caves and fissures associated with exuviae of 

 the fossil elephant, Hippopotamus JPentlandi, Myoxus Melitensis, and 

 birds (the last chiefly aquatic, including Cygnus Falconeri), a lizard, 

 and one or more frogs. The author considered that the nature and 

 arrangement of the deposits and the conditions of their fossil fauna 

 clearly show that they had for the most part been conveyed into the 

 above situations by the agency of large bodies of water, which at 

 one time overflowed the greater portion of the eastern half of the 

 island. 



